Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) sees Kirk and crew attempting to prevent derailment of the Federation/Klingon peace talks by conspirators from both sides. As well as bringing the TOS cast to its retirement, the film also ties up various threads first established in the series (most notably, the conflict between the Federation and the Klingons) and paves the way for the story lines of TNG, set some eighty years later.

Produced during the fall of the Soviet Union, the film's plot may be regarded as a metaphor for those events and the effect they had on international relations at that time.

Star Trek Generations (1994) brings the cast of TNG to the big screen, set less than a year after the end of the series ("All Good Things...") and filmed straight after the completion of its last episodes. Picard and the crew of the USS Enterprise-D must try to stop a brilliant scientist (Tolian Soran) from committing an act of genocide in order to enter the Nexus, a mysterious hedonic realm in which time has no meaning. Appearances by three of the TOS cast (Kirk, Scotty and Chekov) and the heroic death of Kirk who joins Picard by means of the Nexus, served to "pass the torch" from the old generation to the next; the appearance of recurring enemies Lursa and B'Etor and the revelation of their fate provides a key link with the TNG series. The film also includes the destruction of the Enterprise-D.

In Star Trek: Insurrection (1998), Picard and crew discover a covert effort by Starfleet, in co-operation with the belligerent Son'a, to relocate the inhabitants of a "fountain of youth" planet. Standing by his morals, Picard must take up arms against the Federation to save paradise.

Star Trek Nemesis (2002) sees Picard and the Enterprise ordered to investigate the sudden fall of the Romulan government, replaced by a leader from their neighboring race, the Remans. The dark secret of this new leader, Shinzon, brings Picard into conflict in a way he never thought possible, and culminates in a fight to save Earth from a terrible weapon – at great cost. With the death or departure of several main characters – Riker, Troi, Data, and Beverly Crusher – this film marks the end of the TNG cast's adventures. Much as with the (chronological) final big screen appearance of the original cast, which laid the foundations of peace between the Federation and the Klingons, this film includes the establishment of an alliance between the Federation and the Romulans, enemies throughout the TNG era just as the Klingons had been in TOS.

Star Trek (2009) creates a new timeline in the Star Trek franchise, which is tied directly to the Prime Universe, effecting a return to the TOS era, albeit one populated by an all-new cast of actors. It also features a new look, and remains in-universe by explaining all changes as being inadvertently caused by time-traveling Romulan villain Nero. This film focuses on younger versions of Kirk, Spock and the crew and showcases their very first mission aboard the Enterprise.

The sequel Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) picks up a year after the first film, where the crew is tested as they are sent to apprehend John Harrison, a traitor and mass murderer, and uncover corruption and a conspiracy to militarize Starfleet from within.

Future

A third film by Bad Robot Productions is expected to follow Into Darkness. Bryan Burk has commented Paramount want the third film to take less time to produce than Into Darkness, and that 2016 – the 50th anniversary of Star Trek – would be a logical year to release it. [3]Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman have added that Paramount is insisting on a 2016 release date. [4]

Director J. J. Abrams has chosen to direct Star Wars Episode VII, [5] but has not ruled out directing the third film, stating "We're trying to figure out the next step. But it's like anything: It all begins with the story." [6]Damon Lindelof quipped "If Star Wars is indeed coming out in the summer of 2015, unless there is cloning technology that I am not fully aware of exists, it is going to be tough," adding they could find a suitable replacement. [7] Abrams noted "that having directed pilots and movies and then having seen subsequent directors work on those shows or do their own versions of those films – time and again I have seen it done better."[8]

Regardless, Abrams has stated he would like more female characters in the sequel. [9] He also mentioned the sequel could fallback on abandoned story ideas for the characters. "There was [an idea] implying the sexuality of one of the characters, a back story for another character that was pretty intense, a really funny story we wanted to do with yet another. Hopefully, if there are future films, those other stories will get their moment," he said.[10] Lindelof said they would bring back the Klingons and, while not commenting on the story of Into Darkness, added it would be thoughtless to not bring back Benedict Cumberbatch's character if he survives. [11]

Perhaps reflecting their popularity as an alien race, the Klingons appear more than any other throughout the series of films - they appear, or are mentioned, in all twelve of the films released so far. The only two in which no Klingon characters appear are Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek. Interestingly, both films also depict the Kobayashi Maru scenario, which features Klingon ships.

The odd number / even number phenomenon

A number of Star Trek fans have expressed the opinion that the even-numbered films are generally better than the odd-numbered ones. Such an appraisal is obviously subjective, but it has its roots in a number of factors. The even-numbered films (apart from Star Trek Nemesis) have enjoyed relatively greater success at the box office and higher critical acclaim, as opposed to various lukewarm reviews received by the odd-numbered films (with the exception of Star Trek). Fans and critics have also noted that, in their opinions, the even-numbered films are better paced and more action-packed, with more memorable story lines, eminently quotable scripts and exciting special effects. (The first two films are often held up as examples of this trend from the outset of the series: Star Trek: The Motion Picture presents Kirk and crew with a mostly cerebral challenge with very few battle scenes while Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is dominated by a more epic conflict resulting in several battle sequences and heavy damage to the Enterprise and its crew.)

By the time the TNG movies were being produced, the "odd/even" phenomenon was effectively regarded as a curse, with members of the production crew fearing that, despite their best efforts, future odd-numbered productions were fated to be less successful than even-numbered ones. Jonathan Frakes, when interviewed by Star Trek Monthly during pre-production for Star Trek: Insurrection, commented that he was looking forward to directing his second film "even though it's an odd-numbered Star Trek." In 2002, however, the phenomenon was broken by the release of Star Trek Nemesis, which experienced the lowest box-office takings of any Star Trek film to date and was poorly received by even long-standing fans. (Though to a few, this became an even further joke - a Star Trek film which was a multiple of five was cursed to fail catastrophically, as Nemesis pulled in poor reviews and revenue in a similar fashion to The Final Frontier.)

The phenomenon has seemingly been broken further by the critical success of Star Trek, which has obtained a 95% on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, as well as an opening weekend gross of nearly twice the full run of Star Trek Nemesis. [15]

In a 1999 episode of the British sitcom Spaced, the phenomenon was mentioned by the show's lead character, Tim Bisley, who was played by Simon Pegg – an irony not lost on Pegg during and after his work on Star Trek.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Whereas the preceding live-action television series had open endings that allowed for continuation into motion picture format, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ended quite firmly and conclusively, with all its various plot lines resolved and the departure of various main characters. Any subsequent film would therefore have required a significantly different premise and different casting, departing radically from the series' format which had been so familiar to its fan base. On the possibility of a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine film ever happening, Ira Steven Behr commented: "I don't think so. I think we could do a pretty kick-ass Deep Space Nine movie, but not even in my wildest imaginations do I consider it". He also commented "The only Trek I think about is Deep Space Nine, to be honest. If they did a Deep Space Nine film, I certainly would like to be involved if that ever happened, which I doubt". [16]

Andrew Robinson commented "My feeling is that there is never going to be a Deep Space Nine movie, they still have more to go with The Next Generation. I think it ("What You Leave Behind") was really the right way to end the series.[19]

A campaign for a Deep Space Nine film (or a miniseries) was launched in 2000 by fans Stacy Powell and Doug Wilson. Nana Visitor was thrilled to hear of the existence of the campaign and J.G. Hertzler and David B. Levinson joked with fans to "take one of these [flyers], don't throw it away or I'll come after you." [20][21]

In 1998, Rick Berman commented "There are a few more movies left in the Generations franchise and there's a good chance we'll see a Deep Space Nine film. What we'd like to do is introduce a few of the characters from Deep Space into the next Generations movie just to tease audiences." [22]

Star Trek: Voyager / Star Trek: Enterprise

The conclusive endings of both these series likewise indicate little or no probability of future movies being based on them. There is a gap of six years between "Terra Prime" and "These Are the Voyages..." which could serve as the setting of an ENT movie, although the timeline position of Star Trek and its sequel suggests that this would be unlikely. In any case, the potential for continuation has been explored in novels.

Star Trek Nemesis features a cameo by Kate Mulgrew, reprising her role as Kathryn Janeway from Voyager and thus marking the only direct big-screen appearance of any character from that series. (An EMH Mark I, played by Robert Picardo, appears briefly in First Contact, but this is not exactly the same character as the Holographic Doctor in the series.)

Nemesis also features a graphic containing a reference to a USS Archer, named after Captain Jonathan Archer, the main character in Enterprise.

Additionally, "Star Trek" features a reference to "Admiral Archer's prized beagle", intended by the writers to be a reference to Jonathan Archer, [23] and his beagle Porthos.

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